The present invention is directed to a system and method for presenting information in customizable form and more particularly to a system and method for presenting the information in HTML or other documents which are customized according to a user""s personality traits.
Most HTML files, or pages, on the World Wide Web are written in static HTML. Each HTML file and its associated graphics, if any, are stored on a Web server and remain there, unchanged, until the site owner consciously decides to update information. Thus, absent such updates, all users who access a particular Web page, including repeat users, see the same information. Also, they see the information presented in the same way, except for minor details such as different screen resolutions.
Recently, various technologies known collectively as dynamic HTML, or DHTML, have arisen to provide interactive Web pages. The most common such technology is called the common gateway interface, or CGI. A Web page can act as a front end to a CGI script, which can receive information from the user or from another source and process the information on the server to produce a customized Web page, e-mail message or the like. A well known example of CGI is a search engine, which receives search terms from the user, searches a database for the search terms, composes a Web page on the fly listing the hits, and presents that Web page to the user.
A particular use for dynamic HTML is to select information according to a user""s preferences and to present the information to the user in HTML or other format. Typically, the user""s preferences are stored in a file on a server or in a file, called a cookie, which is stored on the user""s computer and which the user""s Web browser forwards to the server upon request. The user""s preferences can be, e.g., for financial news rather than sports news, for traffic reports on one road rather than on another. When the information is to be presented to the user, the server selects items of information from one or more sources in accordance with the user""s preferences, composes one or more HTML files from the information through CGI or the like and supplies the HTML files to the user. Thus, the user receives an electronically customized newspaper.
While such techniques allow different users to be supplied with different information, they present the information to the users in the manner which the Web designers consider appropriate rather than in the manner in which the users consider appropriate. Different users have different personality traits and work best when the information is presented to them in different formats. For example, one user""s preferred format may strike a different user as being too dry, too touchy-freely, too hesitant or too pushy.
One known technique for presenting the same information to different users in different formats is to have parallel sets of Web pages with high and low levels of graphics. However, that technique addresses different users"" different bandwidths (e.g., a slow modem as opposed to a T1 connection) rather than their personalities. Also, since that technique involves nothing more than providing two or more sets of static HTML pages, the site owner must ensure that any update is applied to the appropriate pages having both or all levels of graphics, thus at least doubling the amount of work in maintaining a Web site. Finally, the user is still limited to formats which the Web designer has already seen fit to provide.
It will be readily apparent from the foregoing that a need exists in the art for the dynamic formatting of information to suit each user""s personality traits. It is therefore a primary object of the invention to provide information over the World Wide Web or the like in a format specified by the user rather than by the Web designer.
It is another object of the invention to format information dynamically in accordance with the user""s specified format.
It is a further object of the invention to allow the user to change the specified format and to see the information in the new format immediately.
To achieve the above and other objects, the present invention is directed to a system and method, usable with the World Wide Web or another communication technology, for delivering information to a user in a format selected by the user. The information, instead of being stored in a static HTML document, is dynamically formatted for each user in accordance with that user""s personality traits.
The information to be displayed is stored in a database server. Client computers running Web browsers such as Netscape and Internet Explorer do not access that database server directly. Instead, they access it through an application server running known server software for dynamic Web pages and also software which implements the business models needed to format the information for each user""s personality traits. Those business models and the identity of the browser which each client user is running can be used to format the information in from the database server as required.
When the user accesses the home page on the application server, the user is presented with a list of links corresponding to personality traits so that the user can view the information as desired. Once the appropriate link is selected, further pages are formatted in accordance with that personality trait. The user can also reselect the personality trait on the fly. A cookie can be set so that the next time the user visits the site, even the home page is formatted in accordance with the personality trait selected.
The application server runs middle tier application server software, which manages the business objects needed to format the information and access the database for each user""s behavioral traits. Thus, the user is provided with an optimal viewing experience 100% the time.